Misplaced Pages

#40959

117-773: The decision to adopt the Pentropic organisation was driven by a desire to modernise the Army and ensure that Australian units were able to integrate with those of the United States Army. While the US Pentomic organisation had been implemented in 1957 to improve the Army's ability to operate during a nuclear war , the Australian organisation was optimised for limited wars in South East Asia in which there

234-530: A credible minimum deterrence . Commodore Tim Hare , former Director of Nuclear Policy at the British Ministry of Defence , has described "sub-strategic use" as offering the Government "an extra option in the escalatory process before it goes for an all-out strategic strike which would deliver unacceptable damage". However, this sub-strategic capacity has been criticized as potentially increasing

351-451: A limited nuclear war (sometimes attack or exchange ), refers to the controlled use of nuclear weapons, whereby the implicit threat exists that a nation can still escalate their use of nuclear weapons. For example, using a small number of nuclear weapons against strictly military targets could be escalated through increasing the number of weapons used, or escalated through the selection of different targets. Limited attacks are thought to be

468-423: A 50 m/s wind, which is comparable to tornadoes. Each bomber carried 6 tons of bombs. A total of 381,300 bombs, which amount to 1,783 tons of bombs, were used in the bombing. Within a few hours of the raid, it had killed an estimated 100,000 people and destroyed 41 km (16 sq mi) of the city and 267,000 buildings in a single night — the deadliest bombing raid in military aviation history other than

585-485: A culture where use of these weapons is more acceptable and therefore is increasing the risk of war, as these modern weapons do not possess the same psychological deterrent value as the large Cold-War era, multi-megaton warheads. In many ways, this present change in the balance of terror can be seen as the complete embracement of the switch from the 1950s Eisenhower doctrine of " massive retaliation " to one of " flexible response ", which has been growing in importance in

702-478: A dramatic intensification of the pace of social changes, and was a crucial catalyst for the growth of left-wing politics . Mao Zedong urged the socialist camp not to fear nuclear war with the United States since, even if "half of mankind died, the other half would remain while imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist." A distinctive feature of war since 1945

819-508: A few years. While conventional wisdom holds that casualties have increased in recent times due to technological improvements in warfare, this is not generally true. For instance, the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) had about the same number of casualties per capita as World War I , although it was higher during World War II (WWII). That said, overall the number of casualties from war has not significantly increased in recent times. Quite to

936-434: A finding supported by other researchers. Keeley explains that early war raids were not well organized, as the participants did not have any formal training. Scarcity of resources meant defensive works were not a cost-effective way to protect the society against enemy raids. William Rubinstein wrote "Pre-literate societies, even those organized in a relatively advanced way, were renowned for their studied cruelty.'" Since

1053-508: A general feature of animal social behavior. Some proponents of the idea argue that war, while innate, has been intensified greatly by developments of technology and social organization such as weaponry and states. Psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker argued that war-related behaviors may have been naturally selected in the ancestral environment due to the benefits of victory. He also argued that in order to have credible deterrence against other groups (as well as on an individual level), it

1170-718: A horrendous casualty rate, especially since over 400,000 American combatants had already died fighting in both the European and the Pacific theaters of the war. On July 26, 1945, the United States, the United Kingdom , and the Republic of China issued a Potsdam Declaration that called for the unconditional surrender of Japan. It stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction". The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum, sending

1287-451: A large area using conventional explosives, called dirty bombs . The detonation of a "dirty bomb" would not cause a nuclear explosion, nor would it release enough radiation to kill or injure a large number of people. However, it could cause severe disruption and require potentially very costly decontamination procedures and increased spending on security measures. Radioactive materials can also be used for targeted assassinations. For example,

SECTION 10

#1732776372041

1404-519: A large-scale, "combined nuclear and conventional" war. In accordance with their doctrine, the Soviet Union conducted large-scale military exercises to explore the possibility of defensive and offensive warfare during a nuclear war . The exercise, under the code name of " Snowball ", involved the detonation of a nuclear bomb about twice as powerful as that which fell on Nagasaki and an army of approximately 45,000 soldiers on maneuvers through

1521-464: A limited number of missiles against an adversary as a means of conveying a political message, warning or demonstration of resolve". It is believed that all current nuclear weapons states possess tactical nuclear weapons, with the exception of the United Kingdom , which decommissioned its tactical warheads in 1998. However, the UK does possess scalable-yield strategic warheads, and this technology tends to blur

1638-428: A message that they were not going to surrender. In response to the rejection, President Truman authorized the dropping of the atomic bombs. At the time of its use, there were only two atomic bombs available, and despite the fact that more were in production back in mainland U.S. , the third bomb wouldn't be available for combat until September. On August 6, 1945, the uranium-type nuclear weapon codenamed " Little Boy "

1755-430: A more credible response against attacks that do not justify all-out retaliation, such as an enemy's limited use of nuclear weapons. The second, a full-scale nuclear war , could consist of large numbers of nuclear weapons used in an attack aimed at an entire country, including military, economic, and civilian targets. Such an attack would almost certainly destroy the entire economic, social, and military infrastructure of

1872-469: A much shorter time and can have a long-lasting radiological result . A major nuclear exchange would likely have long-term effects, primarily from the fallout released, and could also lead to secondary effects, such as " nuclear winter ", nuclear famine , and societal collapse . A global thermonuclear war with Cold War -era stockpiles, or even with the current smaller stockpiles, may lead to various scenarios including human extinction . To date,

1989-469: A noble cause is a contributing factor towards war, few wars have originated from a desire for war among the general populace. Far more often the general population has been reluctantly drawn into war by its rulers. One psychological theory that looks at the leaders is advanced by Maurice Walsh. He argues the general populace is more neutral towards war and wars occur when leaders with a psychologically abnormal disregard for human life are placed into power. War

2106-421: A nuclear attack. Indeed, it became generally believed that the threat of nuclear war would deter any strike against the United States. Many proposals were suggested to put all American nuclear weapons under international control (by the newly formed United Nations , for example) as an effort to deter both their usage and a nuclear arms race . However, no terms could be arrived at that would be agreed upon by both

2223-489: A nuclear war. Therefore, they expected a large-scale nuclear exchange, followed by a "conventional war" which itself would involve heavy use of tactical nuclear weapons . American doctrine rather assumed that Soviet doctrine was similar, with the mutual in mutually assured destruction necessarily requiring that the other side see things in much the same way, rather than believing—as the Soviets did—that they could fight

2340-477: A program to update the bomber fleet to one that was all-jet. During the early 1950s the B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress were introduced, providing the ability to bomb the Soviet Union more easily. Before the development of a capable strategic missile force in the Soviet Union, much of the war-fighting doctrine held by western nations revolved around using a large number of smaller nuclear weapons in

2457-617: A qualitative advantage over the Soviet numerical supremacy in conventional weapons. Several scares about the increasing ability of the Soviet Union's strategic bomber forces surfaced during the 1950s. The defensive response by the United States was to deploy a fairly strong "layered defense" consisting of interceptor aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles , like the Nike , and guns, like the M51 Skysweeper , near larger cities. However, this

SECTION 20

#1732776372041

2574-609: A source of violent conflict. Pope Urban II in 1095, on the eve of the First Crusade , advocating Crusade as a solution to European overpopulation, said: For this land which you now inhabit, shut in on all sides by the sea and the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; it scarcely furnishes food enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder and devour one another, that you wage wars, and that many among you perish in civil strife. Let hatred, therefore, depart from among you; let your quarrels end. Enter upon

2691-494: A tactical role. It is debatable whether such use could be considered "limited" however because it was believed that the United States would use its own strategic weapons (mainly bombers at the time) should the Soviet Union deploy any kind of nuclear weapon against civilian targets. Douglas MacArthur , an American general, was fired by President Harry Truman , partially because he persistently requested permission to use his own discretion in deciding whether to utilize atomic weapons on

2808-449: A very short period of time. Such predictions usually include the breakdown of institutions, government, professional and commercial, vital to the continuation of civilization. The resulting loss of vital affordances (food, water and electricity production and distribution, medical and information services, etc.) would account for millions more deaths. More pessimistic predictions argue that a full-scale nuclear war could potentially bring about

2925-411: A war took place—others would be sure to follow over a period of decades, effectively rendering the planet uninhabitable in the same way that a "full-scale nuclear war" between superpowers would, only taking a much longer (and arguably more agonizing) path to the same result. Even the most optimistic predictions of the effects of a major nuclear exchange foresee the death of many millions of victims within

3042-560: A war". Tangible/intangible aims: Explicit/implicit aims: Positive/negative aims: War aims can change in the course of conflict and may eventually morph into "peace conditions" – the minimal conditions under which a state may cease to wage a particular war. Throughout the course of human history, the average number of people dying from war has fluctuated relatively little, being about 1 to 10 people dying per 100,000. However, major wars over shorter periods have resulted in much higher casualty rates, with 100–200 casualties per 100,000 over

3159-480: A warhead to a target, a missile was much faster and more cost-effective than a bomber, and enjoyed a higher survivability due to the enormous difficulty of interception of the ICBMs (due to their high altitude and extreme speed). The Soviet Union could now afford to achieve nuclear parity with the United States in raw numbers, although for a time, they appeared to have chosen not to. Photos of Soviet missile sites set off

3276-546: A wave of panic in the U.S. military, something the launch of Sputnik would do for the American public a few months later. Politicians, notably then- U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy suggested that a " missile gap " existed between the Soviet Union and the United States. The US military gave missile development programs the highest national priority, and several spy aircraft and reconnaissance satellites were designed and deployed to observe Soviet progress. War War

3393-640: A wide-ranging package of reforms to the Australian military, which included increasing the size of the Army. The Army returned to the tropical establishment in 1965, and many of the CMF battalions were re-established as independent units. The main elements of the Pentropic divisions were: Nuclear war Nuclear warfare , also known as atomic warfare , is a military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry . Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction ; in contrast to conventional warfare , nuclear warfare can produce destruction in

3510-744: Is a Mesolithic cemetery in Jebel Sahaba , which has been determined to be about 13,400 years old. About forty-five percent of the skeletons there displayed signs of violent death, specifically traumatic bone lesions. In War Before Civilization , Lawrence H. Keeley , a professor at the University of Illinois , says approximately 90–95% of known societies throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare, and many fought constantly. Keeley describes several styles of primitive combat such as small raids , large raids, and massacres . All of these forms of warfare were used by primitive societies,

3627-431: Is a largely unknown and understudied factor in nuclear deterrence thinking, as states possessing nuclear weapons are susceptible to retaliation in kind, while sub- or trans-state actors may be less so. The collapse of the Soviet Union has given rise to the possibility that former Soviet nuclear weapons might become available on the black market (so-called 'loose nukes'). A number of other concerns have been expressed about

Pentropic organisation - Misplaced Pages Continue

3744-404: Is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states , or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organized groups. It is generally characterized by extreme violence , destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces . Warfare refers to

3861-632: Is caused by leaders who seek war such as Napoleon and Hitler . Such leaders most often come to power in times of crisis when the populace opts for a decisive leader, who then leads the nation to war. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine

3978-493: Is commonplace encourage their children to be more aggressive. War can be seen as a growth of economic competition in a competitive international system. In this view wars begin as a pursuit of markets for natural resources and for wealth. War has also been linked to economic development by economic historians and development economists studying state-building and fiscal capacity . While this theory has been applied to many conflicts, such counter arguments become less valid as

4095-620: Is estimated that between 1985 and 1994, 378,000 people per year died due to war. Most wars have resulted in significant loss of life, along with destruction of infrastructure and resources (which may lead to famine , disease, and death in the civilian population ). During the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the population of the Holy Roman Empire was reduced by 15 to 40 percent. Civilians in war zones may also be subject to war atrocities such as genocide , while survivors may suffer

4212-547: Is fueled by displacement and projection where a person transfers his or her grievances into bias and hatred against other races , religions , nations or ideologies . By this theory, the nation state preserves order in the local society while creating an outlet for aggression through warfare. The Italian psychoanalyst Franco Fornari , a follower of Melanie Klein , thought war was the paranoid or projective "elaboration" of mourning. Fornari thought war and violence develop out of our "love need": our wish to preserve and defend

4329-849: Is that combat has largely been a matter of civil wars and insurgencies. The major exceptions were the Korean War , the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 , the Iran–Iraq War , the Gulf War , the Eritrean–Ethiopian War , and the Russo-Ukrainian War . The Human Security Report 2005 documented a significant decline in the number and severity of armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. However,

4446-836: The American Civil War , including about 6% in the North and approximately 18% in the South. The war remains the deadliest conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 military personnel. United States military casualties of war since 1775 have totaled over two million. Of the 60 million European military personnel who were mobilized in World War I , 8 million were killed, 7 million were permanently disabled, and 15 million were seriously injured. During Napoleon 's retreat from Moscow, more French military personnel died of typhus than were killed by

4563-501: The Cold War . As long as the strategic American nuclear forces could overwhelm their Soviet counterparts, a Soviet pre-emptive strike could be averted. Moreover, the Soviet Union could not afford to build any reasonable counterforce, as the economic output of the United States was far larger than that of the Soviets, and they would be unable to achieve "nuclear parity". Soviet nuclear doctrine, however, did not match American nuclear doctrine. Soviet military planners assumed they could win

4680-543: The Cold War . In 1974, India , and in 1998, Pakistan , two countries that were openly hostile toward each other, developed nuclear weapons. Israel (1960s) and North Korea (2006) are also thought to have developed stocks of nuclear weapons, though it is not known how many. The Israeli government has never admitted nor denied having nuclear weapons, although it is known to have constructed the reactor and reprocessing plant necessary for building nuclear weapons. South Africa also manufactured several complete nuclear weapons in

4797-576: The Manhattan project lead manager J. Robert Oppenheimer recalled: We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, and most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita . Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multiarmed form and says, "Now, I am become Death,

Pentropic organisation - Misplaced Pages Continue

4914-569: The Pacific War and, therefore, World War II, as Germany had already signed its Instrument of Surrender on May 8, 1945, ending the war in Europe . The two atomic bombings led, in part, to post-war Japan's adopting of the Three Non-Nuclear Principles , which forbade the nation from developing nuclear armaments. After the successful Trinity nuclear test July 16, 1945, which was the very first nuclear detonation,

5031-501: The People's Republic of China in 1951 during the Korean War . Mao Zedong , China's communist leader, gave the impression that he would welcome a nuclear war with the capitalists because it would annihilate what he viewed as their imperialist system. Let us imagine how many people would die if war breaks out. There are 2.7 billion people in the world, and a third could be lost. If it is a little higher it could be half ... I say that if

5148-489: The Soviet Union were around 27   million . Since a high proportion of those killed were young men who had not yet fathered any children, population growth in the postwar Soviet Union was much lower than it otherwise would have been. Once a war has ended, losing nations are sometimes required to pay war reparations to the victorious nations. In certain cases, land is ceded to the victorious nations. For example,

5265-488: The United States Navy (and their aircraft) deployed various such weapons as bombs, rockets (guided and unguided), torpedoes, and depth charges. Such tactical naval nuclear weapons were considered more acceptable to use early in a conflict because there would be few civilian casualties. It was feared by many planners that such use would probably quickly have escalated into a large-scale nuclear war. This situation

5382-460: The human extinction , or at least its near extinction, with only a relatively small number of survivors (mainly in remote areas) and a reduced quality of life and life expectancy for centuries afterward. However, such predictions, assuming total war with nuclear arsenals at Cold War highs, have not been without criticism. Such a horrific catastrophe as global nuclear warfare would almost certainly cause permanent damage to most complex life on

5499-535: The hypocenter immediately after the blast. The exercise was conducted on September 14, 1954, under command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov to the north of Totskoye village in Orenburg Oblast , Russia . A revolution in nuclear strategic thought occurred with the introduction of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which the Soviet Union first successfully tested in August 1957. In order to deliver

5616-467: The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko was described by medical professionals, as "an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism ." Alternatives to nuclear warfare include nuclear deterrence , nuclear disarmament and Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons . During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted atomic raids on

5733-406: The "acceptability" of using nuclear weapons. Combined with the trend in the reduction in the worldwide nuclear arsenal as of 2007 is the warhead miniaturization and modernization of the remaining strategic weapons that is presently occurring in all the declared nuclear weapon states, into more "usable" configurations. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute suggests that this is creating

5850-678: The 11th-century Old English words wyrre and werre , from Old French werre (also guerre as in modern French), in turn from the Frankish * werra , ultimately deriving from the Proto-Germanic * werzō ' mixture, confusion ' . The word is related to the Old Saxon werran , Old High German werran , and the modern German verwirren , meaning ' to confuse, to perplex, to bring into confusion ' . The earliest evidence of prehistoric warfare

5967-483: The 1980s, but subsequently became the first country to voluntarily destroy their domestically made weapons stocks and abandon further production (1990s). Nuclear weapons have been detonated on over 2,000 occasions for testing purposes and demonstrations. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the resultant end of the Cold War, the threat of a major nuclear war between the two nuclear superpowers

SECTION 50

#1732776372041

6084-612: The Army's three regular infantry battalions were expanded into the new large Pentropic battalions, the 30 reserve Citizens Military Force (CMF) battalions were merged into just nine battalions. This excluded the University Regiments and the Papua New Guinea Volunteer Rifles which remained unchanged. There was a similar effect on the other CMF units, with most being merged into new, larger units. The other regular infantry battalion remained on

6201-520: The Clock has been set at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been. The most recent advance of the Clock's time setting was largely attributed to the risk of nuclear escalation that arose from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Nuclear warfare scenarios are usually divided into two groups, each with different effects and potentially fought with different types of nuclear armaments. The first,

6318-567: The Cold War , though none resulted in the use of nuclear weapons. Many such scenarios have been depicted in popular culture , such as in the 1959 film On the Beach , the 1962 novel Fail-Safe , the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb , the 1983 film WarGames , and the 1984 film Threads . The above examples envisage nuclear warfare at a strategic level, i.e., total war . However, nuclear powers have

6435-652: The Great Depression, though some consider that it did not play a very large role in the recovery, though it did help in reducing unemployment. In most cases, such as the wars of Louis XIV, the Franco-Prussian War , and World War I , warfare primarily results in damage to the economy of the countries involved. For example, Russia's involvement in World War I took such a toll on the Russian economy that it almost collapsed and greatly contributed to

6552-464: The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events were the only times nuclear weapons have been used in combat . For six months before the atomic bombings, the U.S. 20th Air Force under General Curtis LeMay executed low-level incendiary raids against Japanese cities . The most destructive air raid to occur during

6669-564: The Neanderthals and ancestors of apes and primates. For the period 3000 BCE until 1991, estimates range from 151   million to 2   billion. The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is World War II , from 1939 to 1945, with 70–85 million deaths, followed by the Mongol conquests at up to 60 million. As concerns a belligerent's losses in proportion to its prewar population,

6786-705: The Russians. Of the 450,000 soldiers who crossed the Neman on 25 June 1812, less than 40,000 returned. More military personnel were killed from 1500 to 1914 by typhus than from military action. In addition, if it were not for modern medical advances there would be thousands more dead from disease and infection. For instance, during the Seven Years' War , the Royal Navy reported it conscripted 184,899 sailors, of whom 133,708 (72%) died of disease or were 'missing'. It

6903-461: The Soviet Union pursued its own atomic capabilities through a combination of scientific research and espionage directed against the American program. The Soviets believed that the Americans, with their limited nuclear arsenal, were unlikely to engage in any new world wars, while the Americans were not confident they could prevent a Soviet takeover of Europe, despite their atomic advantage. Within

7020-448: The Soviet Union, with an estimated 16 million deaths in the Soviet Union (half of whom were estimated to be killed on impact and the rest fatally injured) before bomber aircraft from the U.S. Strategic Air Command reached their targets. Although the Soviet Union had nuclear weapon capabilities at the beginning of the Cold War , the United States still had an advantage in terms of bombers and weapons. In any exchange of hostilities,

7137-498: The U.S. casualties from the preceding island-hopping campaigns , American commanders estimated that between 50,000 and 500,000 U.S. troops would die and at least 600,000–1,000,000 others would be injured while invading the Japanese home islands. The U.S. manufacture of 500,000 Purple Hearts from the anticipated high level of casualties during the U.S. invasion of Japan gave a demonstration of how deadly and costly it would be. President Harry S. Truman realized he could not afford such

SECTION 60

#1732776372041

7254-463: The US nuclear war fighting plan/ SIOP every decade since. For example, the United States adopted a policy in 1996 of allowing the targeting of its nuclear weapons at non-state actors (" terrorists ") armed with weapons of mass destruction . Another dimension to the tactical use of nuclear weapons is that of such weapons deployed at sea for use against surface and submarine vessels. Until 1992, vessels of

7371-438: The United States and U.S. Generals , expressed support for an economic view of war. The Marxist theory of war is quasi-economic in that it states all modern wars are caused by competition for resources and markets between great ( imperialist ) powers, claiming these wars are a natural result of capitalism . Marxist economists Karl Kautsky , Rosa Luxemburg , Rudolf Hilferding and Vladimir Lenin theorized that imperialism

7488-541: The United States and the Soviet Union. On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan (see also Soviet atomic bomb project ). Scientists in the United States from the Manhattan Project had warned that, in time, the Soviet Union would certainly develop nuclear capabilities of its own. Nevertheless, the effect upon military thinking and planning in

7605-464: The United States developed and maintained a strategic force based on the Convair B-36 bomber that would be able to attack any potential enemy from bomber bases in the United States. It deployed atomic bombs around the world for potential use in conflicts. Over a period of a few years, many in the American defense community became increasingly convinced of the invincibility of the United States to

7722-416: The United States was dramatic, primarily because American military strategists had not anticipated the Soviets would "catch up" so soon. However, at this time, they had not discovered that the Soviets had conducted significant nuclear espionage of the project from spies at Los Alamos National Laboratory , the most significant of which was done by the theoretical physicist Klaus Fuchs . The first Soviet bomb

7839-478: The United States would have been capable of bombing the Soviet Union, whereas the Soviet Union would have more difficulty carrying out the reverse mission. The widespread introduction of jet -powered interceptor aircraft upset this imbalance somewhat by reducing the effectiveness of the American bomber fleet. In 1949 Curtis LeMay was placed in command of the Strategic Air Command and instituted

7956-495: The United States, the authority to produce and develop nuclear weapons was removed from military control and put instead under the civilian control of the United States Atomic Energy Commission . This decision reflected an understanding that nuclear weapons had unique risks and benefits that were separate from other military technology known at the time. For several years after World War II ,

8073-509: The ability to undertake more limited engagements. "Sub-strategic use" includes the use of either "low-yield" tactical nuclear weapons, or of variable yield strategic nuclear weapons in a very limited role, as compared to exchanges of larger-yield strategic nuclear weapons over major population centers . This was described by the UK Parliamentary Defence Select Committee as "the launch of one or

8190-541: The arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union, Western Europe 's nuclear reserves were nevertheless a significant factor in strategic planning during the Cold War . A top-secret White paper , compiled by the Royal Air Force and produced for the British Government in 1959, estimated that British V bombers carrying nuclear weapons were capable of destroying key cities and military targets in

8307-519: The atomic raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By early August 1945, an estimated 450,000 people had died as the U.S. had intensely firebombed a total of 67 Japanese cities. In late June 1945, as the U.S. wrapped up the two-and-a-half-month Battle of Okinawa (which cost the lives of 260,000 people, including 150,000 civilians), it was faced with the prospect of invading the Japanese home islands in an operation codenamed Operation Downfall . Based on

8424-988: The chances of becoming a psychiatric casualty – of being debilitated for some period of time as a consequence of the stresses of military life – were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire. Swank and Marchand's World War II study found that after sixty days of continuous combat, 98% of all surviving military personnel will become psychiatric casualties. Psychiatric casualties manifest themselves in fatigue cases, confusional states, conversion hysteria, anxiety, obsessional and compulsive states, and character disorders. One-tenth of mobilised American men were hospitalised for mental disturbances between 1942 and 1945, and after thirty-five days of uninterrupted combat, 98% of them manifested psychiatric disturbances in varying degrees. Additionally, it has been estimated anywhere from 18% to 54% of Vietnam war veterans suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder . Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white American males aged 13 to 43 died in

8541-570: The commanding officer of their infantry battalion and report directly to the headquarters of the division as brigade headquarters were abolished as part of the reorganisation. When the Pentropic organisation was implemented in 1960 the Australian Army was reorganised from three divisions organised on what was called the Tropical establishment (the 1st , 2nd and 3rd divisions) into two Pentropic divisions (the 1st and 3rd). While two of

8658-495: The common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets , and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties . While some war studies scholars consider war a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature , others argue it is a result of specific socio-cultural, economic, or ecological circumstances. The English word war derives from

8775-778: The conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers . Three of the ten most costly wars, in terms of loss of life, have been waged in the last century. These are the two World Wars, followed by the Second Sino-Japanese War (which is sometimes considered part of World War II , or as overlapping). Most of the others involved China or neighboring peoples. The death toll of World War II, being over 60 million, surpasses all other war-death-tolls. Military personnel subject to combat in war often suffer mental and physical injuries, including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder , disease, injury, and death. In every war in which American soldiers have fought in,

8892-414: The contrary, on a global scale the time since WWII has been unusually peaceful. Estimates for total deaths due to war vary widely. In one estimate, primitive warfare from 50,000 to 3000 BCE has been thought to have claimed 400   million±133,000 victims based on the assumption that it accounted for the 15.1% of all deaths. Other scholars find the prehistoric percentage much lower, around 2%, similar to

9009-474: The deaths of approximately 200,000 people and contributed to the surrender of Japan , which occurred before any further nuclear weapons could be deployed. After World War II , nuclear weapons were also developed by the Soviet Union (1949), the United Kingdom (1952), France (1960), and the People's Republic of China (1964), which contributed to the state of conflict and extreme tension that became known as

9126-627: The decision to move away from the Pentropic organisation in 1964. During the early 1960s a number of small counter-insurgency wars broke out in South East Asia, and the large Pentropic infantry battalions were ill-suited to these sorts of operations. As the US Army had abandoned its pentomic structure in 1962 and the British Army remained on the tropical establishment, the Australian Army was unable to provide forces which were suited for

9243-511: The destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that one way or another. Immediately after the atomic bombings of Japan, the status of atomic weapons in international and military relations was unclear. Presumably, the United States hoped atomic weapons could offset the Soviet Union's larger conventional ground forces in Eastern Europe , and possibly be used to pressure Soviet leader Joseph Stalin into making concessions. Under Stalin,

9360-501: The difference between "strategic", "sub-strategic", and "tactical" use or weapons. American, French and British nuclear submarines are believed to carry at least some missiles with dial-a-yield warheads for this purpose, potentially allowing a strike as low as one kiloton (or less) against a single target. Only the People's Republic of China and the Republic of India have declarative, unqualified, unconditional " no first use " nuclear weapons policies. India and Pakistan maintain only

9477-588: The evidence examined in the 2008 edition of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management's "Peace and Conflict" study indicated the overall decline in conflicts had stalled. Entities contemplating going to war and entities considering whether to end a war may formulate war aims as an evaluation/propaganda tool. War aims may stand as a proxy for national-military resolve. Fried defines war aims as "the desired territorial, economic, military or other benefits expected following successful conclusion of

9594-582: The forms of warfare it was likely to experience or which were organised along the same lines as units from Australia's main allies. In addition, concentrating the Army's limited manpower into a small number of large battalions was found to be undesirable as it reduced the number of deployable units in the Army. As a result of these factors the Australian Government decided to return the Army to the tropical establishment in November 1964 as part of

9711-459: The increasing mobility of capital and information level the distributions of wealth worldwide, or when considering that it is relative, not absolute, wealth differences that may fuel wars. There are those on the extreme right of the political spectrum who provide support, fascists in particular, by asserting a natural right of a strong nation to whatever the weak cannot hold by force. Some centrist, capitalist, world leaders, including Presidents of

9828-644: The invasion . Since 1947, the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has visualized how close the world is to a nuclear war. The Doomsday Clock reached high points in 1953, when the Clock was set to two minutes until midnight after the U.S. and the Soviet Union began testing hydrogen bombs, and in 2018, following the failure of world leaders to address tensions relating to nuclear weapons and climate change issues. Since 2023,

9945-505: The most destructive war in modern history may have been the Paraguayan War (see Paraguayan War casualties ). In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths, down from 72,000 deaths in 1990. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem, a decrease in social spending, famine , large-scale emigration from the war zone, and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. For instance, of

10062-542: The motivations for war, but no consensus about which are most common. Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said, "Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions, and its own peculiar preconceptions." Dutch psychoanalyst Joost Meerloo held that, "War is often...a mass discharge of accumulated internal rage (where)...the inner fears of mankind are discharged in mass destruction." Other psychoanalysts such as E.F.M. Durban and John Bowlby have argued human beings are inherently violent. This aggressiveness

10179-599: The nature and presence of warfare. Thus, he argues, warfare is not a universal human occurrence and appears to have been a historical invention, associated with certain types of human societies. Montagu's argument is supported by ethnographic research conducted in societies where the concept of aggression seems to be entirely absent, e.g. the Chewong and Semai of the Malay peninsula. Bobbi S. Low has observed correlation between warfare and education, noting societies where warfare

10296-529: The nine million people who were on the territory of the Byelorussian SSR in 1941, some 1.6 million were killed by the Germans in actions away from battlefields, including about 700,000 prisoners of war, 500,000 Jews, and 320,000 people counted as partisans (the vast majority of whom were unarmed civilians). Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in

10413-555: The non-dock industrial production destroyed. The U.S., despite not having a third device ready to be dropped, gave Japan one last warning that there would be another bombing if they did not surrender, and the target would be Tokyo . Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers on August 15, 1945, signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, 1945, officially ending

10530-446: The only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict occurred in 1945 with the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . On August 6, 1945, a uranium gun-type device (code name " Little Boy ") was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima . Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium implosion-type device (code name " Fat Man ") was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki . Together, these two bombings resulted in

10647-634: The planet, its ecosystems, and the global climate. A study presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December 2006 asserted that a small-scale regional nuclear war could produce as many direct fatalities as all of World War II and disrupt the global climate for a decade or more. In a regional nuclear conflict scenario in which two opposing nations in the subtropics each used 50 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons (c. 15 kiloton each) on major population centers,

10764-399: The policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works

10881-475: The previous tropical establishment as it formed part of the 28th Commonwealth Brigade in Malaysia . As part of this reorganisation the Army replaced its outdated weapons with more modern weapons, most of which were supplied from the United States. It was believed that these new weapons would further improve the Army's combat power and the ability of sub-units to operate independently. The Pentropic organisation

10998-475: The process was not the nuclear attacks, but the Operation Meetinghouse raid on Tokyo . On the night of March 9–10, 1945, Operation Meetinghouse commenced and 334 Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers took off to raid, with 279 of them dropping 1,665 tons of incendiaries and explosives on Tokyo . The bombing was meant to burn wooden buildings and indeed the bombing caused fire that created

11115-525: The psychological aftereffects of witnessing the destruction of war. War also results in lower quality of life and worse health outcomes. A medium-sized conflict with about 2,500 battle deaths reduces civilian life expectancy by one year and increases infant mortality by 10% and malnutrition by 3.3%. Additionally, about 1.8% of the population loses access to drinking water . Most estimates of World War II casualties indicate around 60 million people died, 40 million of whom were civilians. Deaths in

11232-407: The researchers predicted fatalities ranging from 2.6 million to 16.7 million per country. The authors of the study estimated that as much as five million tons of soot could be released, producing a cooling of several degrees over large areas of North America and Eurasia (including most of the grain-growing regions). The cooling would last for years and could be "catastrophic", according to

11349-640: The researchers. Either a limited or full-scale nuclear exchange could occur during an accidental nuclear war , in which the use of nuclear weapons is triggered unintentionally. Postulated triggers for this scenario have included malfunctioning early warning devices and/or targeting computers, deliberate malfeasance by rogue military commanders, consequences of an accidental straying of warplanes into enemy airspace, reactions to unannounced missile tests during tense diplomatic periods, reactions to military exercises, mistranslated or miscommunicated messages, and others. A number of these scenarios actually occurred during

11466-424: The rest of the world were lost to them. This option was rejected with the formation of NATO and the decision to permanently station troops in Europe. In the summer of 1951, Project Vista started, in which project analysts such as Robert F. Christy looked at how to defend Western Europe from a Soviet invasion. The emerging development of tactical nuclear weapons was looked upon as a means to give Western forces

11583-419: The rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has continued over much of the globe. The invention of gunpowder , and its eventual use in warfare, together with the acceleration of technological advances have fomented major changes to war itself. In Western Europe, since the late 18th century, more than 150 conflicts and about 600 battles have taken place. During the 20th century, war resulted in

11700-407: The sacred object to which we are attached, namely our early mother and our fusion with her. For the adult, nations are the sacred objects that generate warfare. Fornari focused upon sacrifice as the essence of war: the astonishing willingness of human beings to die for their country, to give over their bodies to their nation. Despite Fornari's theory that man's altruistic desire for self-sacrifice for

11817-674: The same way in any country. Several theories concern the evolutionary origins of warfare. There are two main schools: One sees organized warfare as emerging in or after the Mesolithic as a result of complex social organization and greater population density and competition over resources; the other sees human warfare as a more ancient practice derived from common animal tendencies, such as territoriality and sexual competition. The latter school argues that since warlike behavior patterns are found in many primate species such as chimpanzees , as well as in many ant species, group conflict may be

11934-670: The security of nuclear weapons in newer nuclear powers with relatively less stable governments, such as Pakistan , but in each case, the fears have been addressed to some extent by statements and evidence provided by those nations, as well as cooperative programs between nations. Worry remains, however, in many circles that a relative decrease in the security of nuclear weapons has emerged in recent years, and that terrorists or others may attempt to exert control over (or use) nuclear weapons, militarily applicable technology, or nuclear materials and fuel. Another possible nuclear terrorism threat are devices designed to disperse radioactive materials over

12051-469: The start of the Russian Revolution of 1917 . World War II was the most financially costly conflict in history; its belligerents cumulatively spent about a trillion U.S. dollars on the war effort (as adjusted to 1940 prices). The Great Depression of the 1930s ended as nations increased their production of war materials. By the end of the war, 70% of European industrial infrastructure

12168-560: The target nation, and would likely have a devastating effect on Earth's biosphere. Some Cold War strategists such as Henry Kissinger argued that a limited nuclear war could be possible between two heavily armed superpowers (such as the United States and the Soviet Union ). Some predict, however, that a limited war could potentially " escalate " into a full-scale nuclear war. Others have called limited nuclear war "global nuclear holocaust in slow motion", arguing that—once such

12285-514: The territory of Alsace-Lorraine has been traded between France and Germany on three different occasions. Typically, war becomes intertwined with the economy and many wars are partially or entirely based on economic reasons. The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II . Many economists believe that government spending on the war caused or at least accelerated recovery from

12402-499: The worst came to the worst and one-half dies, there will still be one-half left, but imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist. After a few years there would be 2.7 billion people again. The concept of a "Fortress North America" emerged during the Second World War and persisted into the Cold War to refer to the option of defending Canada and the United States against their enemies if

12519-703: Was a chance that nuclear weapons might be used. Both structures were designed to facilitate independent operations by the sub-units of divisions . The Australian Pentropic division was intended to be air portable, capable of fighting in a limited war and capable of conducting anti-guerrilla operations. The key element of the Pentropic organisation was the reorganisation of divisions into five combined arms battle groups . These battle groups consisted of an infantry battalion , field artillery regiment, engineer field squadron and other combat and logistic elements, including armoured, aviation and armoured personnel carrier units as required. These battle groups would be commanded by

12636-408: Was a small response compared to the construction of a huge fleet of nuclear bombers. The principal nuclear strategy was to massively penetrate the Soviet Union. Because such a large area could not be defended against this overwhelming attack in any credible way, the Soviet Union would lose any exchange. This logic became ingrained in American nuclear doctrine and persisted for much of the duration of

12753-527: Was destroyed. Property damage in the Soviet Union inflicted by the Axis invasion was estimated at a value of 679 billion rubles. The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 2,508 church buildings, 31,850 industrial establishments, 40,000 mi (64,374 km) of railroad, 4100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries. There are many theories about

12870-427: Was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima with an energy of about 15 kilotons of TNT (63,000 gigajoules), destroying nearly 50,000 buildings (including the headquarters of the 2nd General Army and Fifth Division ) and killing approximately 70,000 people, including 20,000 Japanese combatants and 20,000 Korean slave laborers. Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium-type nuclear weapon codenamed " Fat Man "

12987-457: Was generally thought to have declined. Since then, concern over nuclear weapons has shifted to the prevention of localized nuclear conflicts resulting from nuclear proliferation , and the threat of nuclear terrorism . However, the threat of nuclear war is considered to have resurged after the Russian invasion of Ukraine , particularly with regard to Russian threats to use nuclear weapons during

13104-667: Was important to have a reputation for retaliation, causing humans to develop instincts for revenge as well as for protecting a group's (or an individual's) reputation (" honor "). Crofoot and Wrangham have argued that warfare, if defined as group interactions in which "coalitions attempt to aggressively dominate or kill members of other groups", is a characteristic of most human societies. Those in which it has been lacking "tend to be societies that were politically dominated by their neighbors". Ashley Montagu strongly denied universalistic instinctual arguments, arguing that social factors and childhood socialization are important in determining

13221-546: Was more or less a deliberate copy of the Fat Man plutonium device. In the same year the first US-Soviet nuclear war plan was penned in the US with Operation Dropshot . With the monopoly over nuclear technology broken, worldwide nuclear proliferation accelerated. The United Kingdom tested its first independent atomic bomb in 1952, followed by France developing its first atomic bomb in 1960 and then China developing its first atomic bomb in 1964. While much smaller than

13338-614: Was particularly exacerbated by the fact that such weapons at sea were not constrained by the safeguards provided by the Permissive Action Link attached to U.S. Air Force and Army nuclear weapons. It is unknown if the navies of the other nuclear powers yet today deploy tactical nuclear weapons at sea. The 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review emphasised the need for the US to have sub-strategic nuclear weapons as additional layers for its nuclear deterrence. Nuclear terrorism by non-state organizations or actors (even individuals)

13455-533: Was the result of capitalist countries needing new markets . Expansion of the means of production is only possible if there is a corresponding growth in consumer demand . Since the workers in a capitalist economy would be unable to fill the demand, producers must expand into non-capitalist markets to find consumers for their goods, hence driving imperialism. Demographic theories can be grouped into two classes, Malthusian and youth bulge theories: Malthusian theories see expanding population and scarce resources as

13572-638: Was trialled during exercises in 1962 and 1963. These exercises revealed that the battle groups' command and control arrangements were unsatisfactory, as battalion headquarters were too small to command such large units in combat situations. While the large Pentropic infantry battalions were found to have some operational advantages over the old tropical establishment battalions, the divisions' large number of vehicles resulted in traffic jams when operating in tropical conditions. The experience gained from exercises and changes in Australia's strategic environment led to

13689-496: Was used against the Japanese city of Nagasaki, with the explosion equivalent to about 20 kilotons of TNT (84,000 gigajoules), destroying 60% of the city and killing approximately 35,000 people, including 23,200–28,200 Japanese munitions workers, 2,000 Korean slave laborers, and 150 Japanese combatants. The industrial damage in Nagasaki was high, partly owing to the inadvertent targeting of the industrial zone, leaving 68–80 percent of

#40959